Pasadena to raise a glass to Julia Child on her 100th birthday

PASADENA - A hundred years ago, on Aug.15, 1912, Julia Child was born in Pasadena.

Now her hometown is gearing up with the rest of the country to honor the culinary icon's legacy as America's first celebrity cook - she always insisted she wasn't a chef - and celebrate her in ways she would probably approve of: with food and drink.

"Boy, are we celebrating," said Paul Little, president of the Pasadena Chamber of Commerce. "We're kicking off with a cocktail party on Aug.15 to celebrate Julia Child's 100th birthday, and what we're doing is encouraging folks to come out in '50s, '60s or '70s cocktail attire to the restaurant or lounge of their choice, and at 7p.m. toast her memory."

(In 1992, Child told the Star-News her favorite drink was "a reverse martini" - dry vermouth over ice with a shot of gin floating on top.)

Knopf, publisher of Child's "Mastering the Art of French Cooking" among others, is putting out "The JC100," 100 of her recipes chosen by a panel including chefs Jacques P pin and Thomas Keller, and featuring such unanimous selections as her 30-Second Rolled Omelet and Beef Bourguignon.

And Aug.7 to 15 will be Julia Child Restaurant Week, when 100 restaurants nationwide, including in Pasadena, will feature menus inspired by those recipes, said Libby Andrews of YC Media in New York City.

Child's hometown may be ready to eat and drink in her honor, but there's been no serious move to give her early family homes on Magnolia or Pasadena avenues landmark designation. A Euclid Avenue house is no longer standing.

"If anyone has that as a plan, Pasadena Heritage would be helpful," said Sue Mossman, the preservation group's executive director. "It would be great if someone wanted to highlight that, or is interested. But it takes time and energy."

Having more than one McWilliams family house complicates it, Mossman said.

"You'd have to pick which house, the one she was born in, grew up in - or first cooked in," she said. "But it's one of the criteria for significance that a famous person is strongly connected to the house or site."

The Pasadena Museum of History, which did a program on Child about four years ago, isn't planning anything for her centenary, spokeswoman Jeannette Bovard said.

"Curiously enough, we have very little in the archives about her, not anything we can put out specially," Bovard said. "It's really weird we've never really got anything."

Part of it may be that Child, who died Aug. 13, 2004, didn't live here as an adult. But she did visit often over the years to see her family and do book signings, most recently in 2001.

One of her earliest mentions in the Star-News was in 1971 when she came to stay with her stepmother "Mrs. John McWilliams" for Thanksgiving. She was the guest of honor at a continental breakfast, tickets $1, at the Pasadena Buffet at Robinson's (now Target) on Colorado Boulevard: "Mrs. Child will chat about mastering the art of French cooking, explain the use of utensils and whip up her own mayonnaise."

When Child came to Pasadena in 1993 to sign copies of "Cooking with Master Chefs," she recalled growing up here, including driving herself down Lake Avenue - at age 8. "Of course, there was no traffic then." And she denied rumors she'd hitched rides on the streetcars when cycling to Polytechnic School.

"Oh no," she told the Star-News. "We hitched rides on trucks."

Andrews said "hundreds of bloggers, celebrity chefs, writers and passionate fans" have been paying tribute to Child on the JC100 Facebook page, and other social media.

A new biography is due out on Aug.15, Andrews said, and Vroman's, where Child always attracted hundreds of fans to her book signings, will be "part of" the launch.

Little said he doesn't expect any civic recognition for Child. "What are they going to do? It's not like they're going to go out and cook something," he said.

Just having hometown foodies and others raise a glass at the Julia Child Pasadena Cocktail Party on Aug.15 will be a fitting tribute, he said.

But Little said there could be one way of honoring the city's two gastronomic icons, Child and the cheeseburger, in their birthplace.

"I'm still looking for the cheeseburger statue," Little said. "So maybe a statue of Julia Child eating a cheeseburger and drinking a martini?"